Makkaha

The island of Makkaha is found at the southern edge of Auseka, away from main shipping routes and the politics of the mainland. While formally a part of Hampy, no tax collector or offical from the main island has been seen for years, and Makkah is essentially self-governed. That is not to say it is a small place - the islands has a total area of about 7,500 square kilometres and is home to about 95,000 people, almost exclusively humans.

Island Culture

While the Koryo culture has the largest influence on Makkaha, the Makkahans have developed their own flavour of it. The most obvious peculiarity of Makkaha culture is their obsession with beauty, not only in the arts but also in people. Makkaha is the only area in the world where it is possible to be arrested for being ugly, as it is considered a crime to terrorize ones fellow humans with hideousness. Among the youth of Makkaha, those who are lessed blessed with comely features are shunned by the opposite sex and anyone with below-average beauty is prohibited by law to marry or have children.

This ruthless discrimination has, over the generations, created a population of exceptionally beautiful people, and an outcast class that has nothing to gain or lose and engaged in vicious piracy along the northern waters or heads for foreign lands as mercenaries or cheap labour. Meanwhile, Makkahan women are sought-after treasures among certain parts of the nobility in several realms, but not many can afford one, as the expected bride price is between two and five gold pieces - more than a suite of plate.

Makkaha also has never converted to Seogism like other parts of Hampy, but is still rooted in the ancient Koryo Beliefs.

Economy

The island is fertile and covered by forests and marshes. It is self-sufficient in everything but metal of which there is a constant shortage because only two small mines produce any ore locally.

Very little trade arrives in Makkaha, due to its remote location and the fact that it does not have a deep-water port and its two cities are located away from the coast (like many Koryo cities are). The southern coast is too often ravaged by high tides and ocean waves to provide a location for a port town, and the northern coast is mostly marshland or swamps, and treacherous water where not.